After the meal Luke suggested she might like to sit in one of the reclining chairs beside the pool.
'I would, indeed-'
Before the words were out of her mouth, Luke picked her up and carried her along the terrace to lay her carefully in one of the chairs. 'Are you comfortable?' he asked as he straightened.
'Yes-thank you,' she said through clenched teeth, irritated to find that, while her brain repudiated physical intimacy with Luke as total disaster, the fleeting physical contact with him had sent her hormones running riot, damn them.
'What is wrong, Isobel?' he asked, taking the chair beside her.
'Nothing. How could anything be wrong?' she said, getting a grip. 'It's so beautiful here.'
'True-' He groaned as his phone rang. 'Forgive me for a moment?' he asked, identifying the caller. 'I must answer this.'
'Of course.' Isobel watched him stride into the house, talking to his caller in tones which made it obvious, even though she couldn't understand a word of it, that the news he was being given was bad. She sat back in her chair, giving her hormones a stringent lecture as she watched the play of lights on the pool.
Luke looked grim when he rejoined her. 'I must leave for Athens at daybreak.'
'Trouble?'
'Of a kind, yes. During the airline takeover there was one solitary dissenter when the board voted for my acquisition.'
'And he's making difficulties for you?'
'She,' he corrected, with a harsh note in his voice that won him a sharp look. 'The woman previously in charge of the airline. When she found there was no way to stop the merger going through, the lady was so enraged she eventually suffered a stroke. I have just been informed that she died of it today.'
'Do you feel you're to blame?' asked Isobel soberly.
Luke looked at her in surprise. 'No. If the gods struck her down it was her fate.'
'That's very-Greek of you.'
He shrugged. 'Even if I am to blame for her stroke and her death, I am merely the instrument fate chose for this.'
Her eyes widened. 'You obviously didn't like her much.'
'Like her?' Luke gave a mirthless bark of laughter. 'It may shock you to hear this, but I hated her so much I rejoice in her death.'
His brutal honesty sent shivers down Isobel's spine. 'Will you go to her funeral?'
'Of course. It will be expected. Funerals take place here as soon as possible after death, so tonight there will be the Trisagion, or vigil, with prayers for the departed. I would not have attended that even if I were there, but I shall put in the necessary appearance at the church tomorrow, complete with black arm band. Unless her husband turns me away at the door,' he added grimly.
'But if his wife had a stroke, it's hardly reasonable to blame you for her death!'
'He has never been a reasonable man.'
'You know him well?'
'I know of him well enough!'
'Was he involved in the takeover negotiations?'
Luke smiled coldly. 'For some reason he chose to stay behind the scenes and let his wife Melina do the talking, which was his big mistake. If he had conducted the negotiations himself, things might not have gone so well for me. But from the day he gave her nominal control of the airline, his wife made enemies of every man on the board. The result was unanimous acceptance of my offer.'
'Not a nice lady.'
Luke smiled grimly. 'Not nice at all, Isobel.'
'But her husband must be grieving for her, just the same.'
'Possibly. But he has many business interests to console him. I doubt he will grieve for long.'
'That's cold! You obviously don't like him, either.'
Luke's teeth showed white in the semi-darkness. 'Like is too lukewarm a word, Isobel.'
'You know him well, then?'
'No. If I meet him tomorrow it will be for the first time. Yet Theodore Andreadis is my grandfather.'
CHAPTER FIVE
ISOBEL'S eyes widened in astonishment. 'Your grandfather? And you've never met him?'
'He does not acknowledge the relationship.' The words sounded like pebbles dropped in a dish. Luke shrugged. 'Not that I wish him to, nor do I trade on the fact that I am his grandson. To me, he is just a tyrannical old man I cannot forgive for his treatment of my mother. If I tell you what he did it may help you understand.' He turned to look at her. 'Though normally this is not a subject I discuss.'
'Your confidence is safe with me, I promise.'
'I do not doubt it. So, let me explain the rift. My grandmother, the first wife of Theo Andreadis, left him for a lover when their daughter was a baby, but died soon afterwards. To avoid history repeating itself, Theo brought Olympia up very strictly, educated at home instead of sent to school, and allowed contact with only one friend he considered suitable. In time he remarried and presented her with Melina, the archetypal wicked stepmother. She,' he added harshly, 'made life a living hell for the young Olympia.'
'So that's why you hated her!'
'There was worse to come. Coaxed by her friend to break out and go to a party, Olympia met a man there. Afterwards, having tasted freedom, Olympia stole out of the house at night to meet him as often as she could. Her absences went unnoticed, due to the discretion of loyal servants who adored Olympia. But I was the inevitable result of these secret meetings. When Melina found out about the pregnancy, she urged Theodore Andreadis to throw his daughter out of the house for disgracing his name, as her mother had done before her. So he did,' Luke added harshly.
Isobel eyed him in horror. 'How did your mother survive?'
'With the help of her faithful friend Chloe, she managed to get to her old nurse, here on Chyros, and begged a job from Basil Nikolaides in the kitchen of his taverna. After I was born she kept her job, saved everything she could for my education, and after school hours and at weekends I worked, too, usually as deck hand on one of the fishing boats. The jewels left to her by my erring grandmother were all my mother took with her from her home in Athens, and sales of these saw me through college and financed my MBA. But, to my great sorrow, my mother died before I began making money with my freighters.' Luke's mouth tightened. 'So you see why I have no love for Theo Andreadis; even less for his harpy of a wife.'
Isobel was silent for a while. 'When did you start thinking about revenge?'
His lips tightened. 'From the day I heard what happened to my mother.'
'It must have been hard for her to tell you.'
Luke shook his head. 'She did not. I had it all from old Sofia, who would have murdered Theo Andreadis with her own bare hands if she could, and Melina with him. I swore I would one day take my revenge. But not with murder, as Sofia thirsted for. I had something more subtle and painful in mind. Taking over the airline was the perfect revenge on Melina because it was the ultimate humiliation for her. She was so incandescent with fury it is no surprise that she had a stroke afterwards. Nor am I hypocrite enough to pretend regret that she is dead.'
Isobel was silent as she stared out into the starlit night, feeling chilled to the bone.
'You are shocked?' he asked.
'Stunned, rather. It's like a Sophocles tragedy.' She turned to him. 'You've had your revenge on Melina, but what about your grandfather? Is his wife's death enough revenge for you, or do you have something different planned for him?'
'I did not plan Melina's death-fate did that for me. And no doubt it will do the same for Theo Andreadis one day without my help. Even though I have no love for him, I will not seek revenge on someone of my own blood,' Luke assured her and smiled faintly. 'Isobel, you have not asked me the all important question.'
'I wouldn't dream of asking you any questions at all,' she assured him. 'I'm gratified that you told a stranger like me even this much.'
'It is not normal dinner table conversation,' he agreed. 'But you must surely be curious about the identity of my natural father.'
'I'm only human, so of course I am,' she said frankly. 'But only if you want to tell me.'
To his surprise, Luke found that he did. 'Chloe, the friend who took Olympia to the party, had a brother who excelled at athletics. He introduced the shy Olympia to the gold medallist swimmer he brought home from college for the party. It was love at first sight for both of them. After a series of brief stolen meetings, arranged with help from the faithful Chloe, the secret lover left to train for his next championship, promising to return to marry Olympia straight afterwards.'
'I'm not going to like the next bit,' said Isobel with foreboding. 'He didn't come back, obviously.'
'No. His plane crashed.'
'Oh, Luke, that's so sad!'
He nodded sombrely. 'All she had of him were his gold medals and the son he gave her. Apparently, I resemble him very closely. And,' he added with a smile, 'I have always been a powerful swimmer.'
'I saw you in the pool.'